Rajkot: Five persons were arrested for allegedly trying to extort Rs 2 lakh from a farmer after threatening to frame him in a false rape case in Kharedi village of Kalawad taluka in Jamnagar district on Monday. The accused were identified as Alpesh Bhatti, a jawan of Rajkot gram rakshak dal, Gautam Bathwar, Hitesh Koli, Parth Shishangia and Ashwin Prajapati. They tried to extort the money from Damji Kothia (42).

According to the complaint, Bathwar called a woman from Rajkot and clicked her photographs with Kothia.

“Then, the other co-accused arrived at the spot posing as cops. They threatened to implicate Kothia in a false rape case and demanded Rs 10 lakh from him. However, later, they scaled down their demand to Rs 2 lakh. Meanwhile, Kothia approached us with the complaint, leading to the arrest of the accused,” said D P Chudasama, sub-inspector of Kalawad taluka police station.